gms | German Medical Science

7th EFSMA – European Congress of Sports Medicine, 3rd Central European Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Annual Assembly of the German and the Austrian Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Outline

Objective: Physical therapy (physiotherapy) is one of the most ancient branches of medicine. Even in remote past humans used it as a method of choice in the treatment of various diseases. Physical therapy is divided into several main lines involving electrotherapy (electric muscle stimulation), magnetotherapy, phototherapy, laser therapy, ultrasound therapy, inhalation and aeroionotherapy, kinesitherapy, mechanotherapy, massages, reflexotherapy, hydrotherapy, thermotherapy (heat therapy), climate therapy, balneotherapy, physical prophylaxis and rehabilitation.

Material/Methods: Sport involves workouts that can be daily or frequent and whose purpose is to achieve certain goal in various conditions that largely differ from those of the normal daily routine. Most often people practice sports for pleasure, for participation in competitions, for personal improvement, for skills development or for reasons somewhere in between. The European Sports Charter (2001, revised) defines sport as “all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organized participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels”. Cycling is one of the most popular sports in the world. The elaboration, employment and administration of a specialized physical therapy program for the recovery of cyclists during specialized, training and/or conditioning camps can play a vital role for the future success high level events on world and Olympic scale.

Results: Being best conditioned for the competition is the basis of the sportsperson’s success when he/she aspires at high sports achievement. Most often, conditioning for a competition is performed in the course of specialized sports camps or planned micro- and macro cycles of the training process. The application of physical therapy procedures is particularly important and of basic significance for the recovery of bodily skills and the improvement of the physiological and vital signs of sportspersons under heavy training pressure. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce a detailed schedule and program for physical therapy, rehabilitation and stimulation procedures which will not only provide quality, fast and effective recovery of the physiological capabilities of the body during the specialized cycling training camp but will so condition and stimulate the organism that the cyclist won’t feel the burden of augmenting workouts and will improve his/her achievements with every workout in the course of the training camp.

Conclusion: The elaboration of the schedule and program of the specialized cycling training camp involves the administration of seven physical therapy procedure types, namely, mechanotherapy, hydrotherapy, balneotherapy, kinesitherapy, massage, climate therapy and aeroionotherapy. Special emphasis is placed on sleep as part of the compensatory and recovery mechanisms of the living organism. Comment with brief analysis of the role and need of sex life for the top sportspeople during a training camp is provided.